Posted March 7, 2022

A/N: Oh, no. Carina came to town, revealing secrets and hitting on everyone.

"Chuck vs the Wookiee" (1x04) Recap
Here are a few things you might need to know in case you forgot.

Three teams played a couples' game at the Echo Park apartment: Ellie and Devon, Chuck and Sarah, and Chuck and Morgan. Ellie and Devon were ahead, then Chuck and Morgan, and then Chuck and Sarah at the rear, with everyone having fun. Bryce was revealed as Chuck's nemesis, which Sarah didn't know, but even Devon thought it was an easy question.

Afterwards, Sarah said Morgan was like the Intersect of Chuck, and if Chuck wanted to know more about her, he could ask. Chuck asked how close Sarah and his nemesis were. She said undercover things are true, but the details are different. Chuck and Sarah hadn't done well on the sex questions, and she told Chuck their cover story was they were taking it slow.

Back at Maison23, while getting ready for a shower, Sarah saw a reflection of someone behind her about to attack. The two fought, until her fish bowl was knocked over. The ninja stopped fighting and saved the fish. Sarah removed the ninja's hood, revealing it was an old friend, Carina. She was there to recruit Sarah for her mission to steal a diamond.

The next morning, Chuck flashed on Carina waiting in the courtyard. He went into Casey's and said he had seen an undercover DEA agent. Sarah and Casey were talking to Beckman and Graham. They ordered the team to work with Carina but not reveal Chuck was the Intersect. Afterwards in the courtyard, they told Carina they would work with her. Morgan showed up and met Carina, who called him "Martin."

Later, Carina went to Buy More to find out more about the team's "analyst," Chuck. Sarah followed to run interference, and Morgan asked Chuck to fix him up with Carina. Chuck told Sarah, but she didn't take Chuck's request to say no. Instead, she told Carina she go on a double date to protect the cover, Chuck with Sarah and Carina with Morgan.

During the double date at Chuck's, Carina flirted heavily with Morgan, making him think she was very interested. After the date, Morgan repeatedly called Chuck to ask about Carina, but eventually there was a call for on-call Nerd Herd support.

Chuck went on the support call, but it was a ruse from Carina to get him to her hotel room. She tried to seduce him, and he turned her down. Carina figured it was because he liked Sarah, so she told him Bryce was Sarah's boyfriend.

Before the mission the next day, Chuck asked Sarah again about her and Bryce. He figured out that Carina had been telling the truth about Sarah and his old nemesis.

The mission was at the pool of a hariy-chested drug financier, Peyman Alahi, who had the diamond. Carina, Sarah, and Chuck scoped the inside and went to a gallery in the house where the huge diamond was on display. The short "wookiee" and his guards found them. While Sarah was distracting the "wookiee," Carina used Chuck's idea to steal the diamond, which was not the objective of that phase of the mission. The three had to escape through the beach. Carina was able to leverage Chuck's mistrust of Bryce's ex, to get him to give her the diamond. She left them behind using a submerged jet ski. Casey rescued them in a getaway car. He then figured out a way of tracking Carina.

After the mission, Casey went after Carina at her hotel. While she was leaving, Morgan showed up with flowers for Carina. She saw Casey, so she kissed Morgan as a distraction to drop the diamond in his bag, before telling him they wouldn't work. With Morgan gone, she seduced Casey. He didn't want to put his foot in his mouth by asking Sarah about things she wanted to keep secret, so he stayed and handcuffed him to the headboard of her bed.

Sarah "benched" Chuck at Buy More because he had given the diamond to Carina, then went to find out where Casey was. After work, Chuck talked to Morgan about their screwed up relationships with Sarah and Carina. Getting pizza from the kitchen, Chuck found Morgan's bag and the diamond, and he flashed that it was used by terrorists, not drug dealers. Chuck called Sarah about the diamond, and she told him she had been captured, so he should get Carina for help. Carina showed up as a ninja to retrieve the diamond which she had hidden in Morgan's bag, but Chuck figured out who she was and convinced her to help save Sarah.

Chuck and Carina took the diamond to save Sarah, but instead they fought with her to stop the "wookiee" and his goons. Chuck protected the diamond by threatening to FedEx it down a mail shoot, but when Casey came to the rescue, he accidentally dropped it.

The next day, Beckman and Graham received the diamond in the FedEx box. Carina said goodbye and unsuccessfully propositioned Chuck again, because she liked "taking what Sarah wants." Chuck and Sarah made pizza plans to talk about how he acted on the mission.

Chuck showed up with a pizza that Sarah liked, apologized for not trusting Sarah, and asked her middle name. At first, she didn't answer, but when Chuck was away, she whispered the answer.

Chapter Characters: Carina, Chuck (with Sarah)

Songs (from 1x04):
- "Wild Girl" by Matt Pond PA
- "Fall into Place" by Apartment

www. imdb. com (8.2/10)
chuckthisblog. wordpress. com (29/91)

October 15, 2007
Bogotá, Columbia

Carina was confused. She confidently strutted into a bar to meet her contact. It was the type of simple thing that Carina could do in her sleep. Maybe he'd be cute so they could have fun afterwards.

Her confusion had nothing to do with her new mission. It was because she didn't understand her long-time best friend. What was Sarah doing?

Of the CATS, Sarah always seemed the one in the most control of everything. That included herself. Carina knew Sarah for long enough that she could tell that the CIA agent wanted Chuck, even though she didn't know it, yet. Chuck was completely head-over-heels for the blonde spy. He was just an analyst, but he was willing to go by himself with no leverage to try to rescue Sarah. That was while he and Sarah were in a fight. Carina started to strip in front of him before the mission, and she offered him a good time again at the end of the mission, but both times, Chuck turned her down. No one turned Carina down! Except Chuck. The tall and lanky analyst was too far gone because he was hung up on Sarah.

Knowing Sarah, she was good enough to be Chuck's cover girlfriend, while keeping him at arm's length. She wasn't doing that, though. She was letting him get close but wasn't with Chuck, either. Carina would've understood that. Sarah wanted to be close. He was an analyst. What's the problem? It was foolish to stay close while unnecessarily stopping.

Whatever their top secret mission was, it'd be over soon enough. Maybe that was what Sarah was doing. She was waiting. She'd sleep with Chuck once on the way out of town. Then, she'd go back to normal. Carina looked forward to that day when she and her old partner could finish a mission then go out for a night on the town, without some cute, perplexing guy hanging around.

Maison23
Los Angeles, CA

It's Lisa. My middle name is Lisa.

Did Chuck hear that right? He continued getting the napkins out of the bag he had left by the door. Sarah couldn't have actually answered his question about her middle name. Or could she have? Did she just say what he thought she said?

Assuming he had heard that right, Sarah had actually whispered "Lisa." She said it so quietly, Chuck knew he wasn't supposed to hear it. Knowing Bryce, he probably never cared to even ask. She must have wanted to say something when he was in front of her, but she didn't just tell him outright. For some reason, it was important to her to keep her middle name secret—but she told Chuck anyway. Or she almost did. He guessed he wasn't supposed to have heard. He couldn't just tell her that he knew this big secret about her. He couldn't hide it from her either. This spy stuff was complicated.

Chuck returned to the main part of the room, and Sarah had scooted back and pulled the pizza box up the bed. That was her bed, so he was going to politely sit away from her, but because he had moved the pizza up the bed, he couldn't reach it.

Sarah patted up next to her. "You can sit up here. This is a big bed. There's room enough for both of us." She had moved her papers and laptop to the side and was suggesting that he sit by her. He didn't think he could join her in—not on her bed.

Sarah smiled and said, "You look good in red."

In red? He wasn't wearing red. Oh. She was talking about how he was blushing.

She lightly chuckled. "That answers that. You can get even redder." She patted next to her again. "Come on. Up here."

"I'm wearing shoes."

Sarah shrugged. "You can make yourself comfortable and talk them off. Or if my blanket gets dirty, the CIA will pay for cleaning. Don't worry about it. You don't have to sit where you're going to fall off. I won't bite."

Chuck slowly moved up. He tried to cover his embarrassment with humor. "I know you don't bite. You're good with knives, though."

Sarah's face dropped. "Good point." Then, she did something unexpected. She pulled a knife from under one of her pillows. Chuck's eyes got big because he had been joking. He wasn't expecting an actual knife. Sarah put it on the bedside table away from him and said, "Now, it's completely safe."

Chuck couldn't imagine being safe around Sarah. Safe from other people, yes. Safe from falling even harder for his beautiful fake-girlfriend, no. An actual knife under the pillow or off to the side had nothing to do with that.

Sarah and Chuck each took a couple napkins and a piece of pizza. Sarah said, "Chuck, if we're going to be a convincing couple, you need to feel more comfortable around me. I know you well enough that you aren't going to go too far. The problem is you sometimes don't act like someone who has been my boyfriend for almost a month. You have my permission to be more familiar."

Chuck wrinkled his forehead. What was she giving permission for him to do? "What do you mean?"

"For example, you're allowed to kiss me in public."

Sarah shouldn't be subjected to that. "I was serious about the PDA thing."

"Fine. You can keep being a gentleman. I won't be offended. You should know, if you need to practice with no one around, though, that's fine with me." Her mouth twisted, and Chuck could tell she was teasing him. How often does a woman need to convince her boyfriend to kiss her—not that they were really boyfriend and girlfriend… She was definitely teasing! He was trying to be respectful and not force her to do something she didn't want to do, and she was deliberately messing with his head. "Why, Sarah Lisa Walker, I—"

"What did you call me?

"Sarah L— Oh. I heard you earlier, when I was at the door. I'm sorry, I probably wasn't supposed to hear that. Growing up, Mom always used Ellie's and my full names when we were in trouble, and now Ellie and I still do when calling the other out. This time, I could tell you were messing with me. I won't say it again. It's not like 'Sarah Walker' is even your real name. You made that perfectly clear to me a few weeks ago when you attacked me in the bathroom."

Sarah finished swallowing her bite of pizza and got serious. "I didn't mean for you to hear that, but it's ok that you did. While I can't tell you my life story because you might flash, I'm sorry I didn't just tell you my middle name. 'Sarah Walker' is my legal name. That's not the name I was born with. However, 'Sarah Walker' gets a government paycheck. On some missions, I use different aliases. For this one, I'm using my legal name. That's the name on my lease at Maison23, and that is the name used on my W-4 for Wienerlicious."

She continued, "A lot of covert agents change their legal name to hide their history. 'John Casey' is probably not his original name either, protecting any family he has, if he has any. I don't know. However, he's in the military, and that's the name legally used for his service, making him Major John Casey, not something else."

Chuck nodded that he understood. "Thank you for explaining. I'm sorry. I just want to know more about you."

"You don't have to apologize. I love that you pay attention to little things like the type of pizza I like. You should know that I do eat meat on my pizza, too."

"I'm sorry I messed up again. I can get you something else—"

"That's not what I'm saying. You're right that I don't like olives. I don't like anchovies and I'm not thrilled about pepperoni. I'm not a vegetarian, though. That would be hard, working at a hot dog restaurant."

"So you're saying that the Wienerlicious serves real meat."

Sarah laughed. "I don't know how real. We've been instructed to tell anyone who asks that we have nothing vegetarian on the menu. Supposedly, the oil on the fries has some animal fat and peanut oil, so we aren't safe for anyone."

"I won't tell anyone the secret of how you work at a place that dispenses heart attacks. If that got out about the fries, probably even more of the Buy More staff would come by on a regular basis. I have to be around them enough, and I wouldn't want to inflict them on you. I'm sure, as the CIA's best, you can withstand torture, but sending more of them your way would be cruel and unusual."

Chuck and Sarah ate the rest of the pizza silently. He didn't want to put his foot in his mouth by asking Sarah about things she wanted to keep secret, so he stayed mute. He and Sarah were supposed to go on lunch dates more for the cover, but with Carina coming to town, he and Sarah really hadn't had the chance. Chuck often talked to fill the silence, but he and Sarah passed looks back and forth while they ate. If he didn't know better, he would think they were flirting over food. It couldn't be that.

Fortunately, she didn't seem to holding a grudge for the stupid thing he did with the diamond, and she didn't seem to mind him knowing her middle name—if that was even her real middle name. A W-4 made it legal, but it also made "Sarah Walker" legal, and she said that wasn't her real name. Whatever "Lisa" was, the name was going until his special, mental "Sarah file."

He was surprised that she didn't seem upset at all. In fact, the entire time they silently ate, her eyes were sparkling at him. Chuck didn't know what to make of it. Maybe her eyes were just that beautiful.

When Chuck finished his last piece, Sarah became serious and asked, "Chuck, could you do me a favor?"

"I'll do anything for you. I won't make the same mistake as yesterday when I gave the diamond to the wrong person."

"You're sweet." She put her hand on his wrist. "I need you to trust me, but that's not what I'm talking about."

"I do trust you," Smiling after he said that, Sarah squeezed his wrist.

"Could you take a look at my fish and 'fix it'?"

That was not what Chuck was expecting. Sarah got off the bed and went over to a table across the room. Chuck just sat there, thinking he heard her wrong.

Sarah came back to stand at the side of the bed and held out her hand for Chuck to take. Chuck just sat there and stared at the proffered hand. Sarah wiggled her fingers and said, "This is what I'm talking about. When your girlfriend holds out her hand, you shouldn't hesitate to take it."

"But it's just a cover."

"And no one can suspect that because you hesitated before taking my hand. I know there is no one around, but things like this should be natural, with or without an audience."

Chuck cautiously took her hand and stood up from the bed. She pulled him across the room to where she was standing before. She repeated what he thought he misheard earlier. "Can you fix my fish?"

In front of them was a fishbowl with a goldfish. Sarah had a pet goldfish. "What's wrong with it?"

"Him."

"Ok. What's his name?"

"I haven't given him a name. It's not like I ask him to fetch the newspaper. If you think he should have a name… I don't know… How about Peaches III?"

Chuck frowned. "I only found out about what happened to Peaches I a couple days ago."

Sarah playfully nudged his side. "Too soon?"

Chuck thought anytime was too soon to talk about his favorite pet being run over by a car. Or maybe was right that his favorite was the replacement, like Morgan said. Chuck had never picked a favorite between the two because it didn't seem fair to the other one. It was painful to think about his childhood pets, and it didn't matter now. Chuck decided to try joking back. "What About Bob?" Sarah did get it."You know, the movie 'What About Bob?' with Richard Dreyfus and Bill Murray."

"Sorry, I don't know who those people are."

"They both won or were nominated for Oscars. I don't remember those movies. Richard Dreyfus was in Close Encounters, with aliens coming to Earth…" Chuck saw a complete lack of recognition. "I get it. Sci-fi movies aren't your thing. You probably don't know Bill Murray from Ghostbusters, either"

"I've seen most of that one. I saw it on TV when I was younger. I stopped watching when I saw that the ghosts were a con."

Chuck was shocked that's what she took away from it. "You didn't see the end. Ghosts are not a con. They're real. Initially, the mayor and some of his advisors said the Ghostbusters were conning New York, but the Ghostbusters ended up saving the city from the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man."

"Ghosts aren't real, and that movie is fiction."

"They are real in the movie, not a con, but you didn't see the end, so you wouldn't know that. You don't get the reference, 'What about Bob?', so forget that name. We need a new name. What about Intersect? Your job is to protect the Intersect, and your fish would be Intersect, so you could do it twice."

Sarah wrinkled her cute nose. "What other names?"

Chuck pulled up the Internet on his cell phone and searched for popular goldfish names. He started with "Bubbles."

"I don't have an aquarium yet. I was thinking that maybe I need to get one. I need to confirm what the building allows. When I researched, I read that goldfish can live 5-10 years, even 14, if they're in a big enough tank. In the bowl, it would only be 2-3 years."

It was cute that she researched getting a goldfish, but that's not whar concerned him. "You think you're going to be my protector for 2-3 years, maybe 5-10, or even 14. Are you planning on being my cover-girlfriend until 2021?"

"No, but I'm going to protect you as long as necessary, and I won't let anything happen to you—however long that is. I've never had a pet, so no promises with one of those. I'm hoping he doesn't run away from the water. You are safe as long as you trust me."

Oops. Chuck walked into that one. "Ok. You never had a pet?" Sarah nodded. "I guess a goldfish is a good starter," Chuck said. "When the Intersect is out of my head, please don't flush Intersect to get rid of it."

"I promise not to flush him. His name is not Intersect."

"I guess that since you're here to protect the Intersect, it's probably better that you don't call your fish that. Come to think of it, the entire idea is bad. Please don't name it, I mean him, Chuck, either. I don't like the idea of being trapped in a fishbowl."

"Agreed." Sarah teased, "You're lucky my fish isn't a 'she,' or the name could be "Charlette. You like middle names, but I promise I won't name him Irving either. What else is on your list?"

Chuck thought "Piranha" would be ironic for a goldfish, but it was a bad idea to use his name for the same reason as the other names. Also, Chuck didn't want to have to explain that name to Sarah. He went back to the Internet list. "Finny?"

Sarah shook her head.

"Goldie?"

"It's a 'goldfish,' but it's orange, not gold."

"Jaws?" Sarah raised her eyebrows in skepticism. "Spielberg directed both Jaws and Close Encounters." The eyebrow didn't budge. "No sci-fi. Right. Nemo? But you probably don't know Finding Nemo.'"

"Unfortunately, I know that movie very well. I used to work with someone who loved it and made the rest of our team sit through it over and over. No."

"Splash? Did you see Splash, with Tom Hanks?"

Sarah shook her head again.

"Sushi? You know what? I'm vetoing that one. That's a bad name because people eat sushi."

"You're right. However, that reminds me, it would be good to go on a double date with Ellie and Devon. That'd be better than Carina faking being on a date with Morgan. No one would be faking it with them."

No one would? Chuck thought he and Sarah would be faking it, meaning one couple would. He was confused. It was probably not a good idea to ask her to explain. Sarah would stomp on his heart again by reminding him that they were only a cover-couple. She was the one defining their relationship.

Back to a name… "Fin Fin?"

"If it's cute to use the same name twice, I could call him Fish Fish and call you Chuck Chuck."

"So 'no' to that one." Wait a second… Cute? Chuck shook out his head. "What about the last name on this list: 'Comet'?"

"Is that because he's a comet goldfish? No. 'Comet' sounds like the name of something flying through space, not swimming in water. Instead of 'Goldie,' how about 'Orangie,' because he's orange?" Sarah took his hand. It seemed like she wanted him to approve the name.

Chuck said, "Orangie it is! Why are we over here, looking at Orangie?"

"Please. I want you to check if Orangie is ok. If not, fix him"

"I'm not a veterinarian. The limit of my medical expertise is what I learned from Ellie when she was in med school, back when she'd practice on me, doing things like putting my unbroken arm in a cast. She and Devon are people doctors, not vets. I don't see how they can help."

"Not them, you. You're good at fixing things. I need you to fix Orangie so nothing happens to him."

"I fix computers, not living things. Why does it—he—he need to be 'fixed'?"

"After the game at your apartment. I came back here to take a shower. When I was about to get in, Carina attacked me, and we fought. During the fight, Carina knocked over Orangie's fish bowl, and he went on the carpet. She put Orangie back in the bowl right away so he wouldn't suffocate, but I don't know if there are lingering effects."

"Carina attacked you when you were trying to get ready for a shower? I thought you and she were friends."

"It's no big deal. We've known each other a long time. It's her way of saying hello. She does things like that to see if I'm on my toes."

Chuck didn't know what to say. First, Carina tried to seduce him away from Sarah. Then, she brought up Bryce to sow discontent between him and Sarah. Carina tricked him into giving her the diamond and left them to die. But then she rescued Sarah. Before all of that, she attacked Sarah in her own home. What kind of "friend" was Carina?

"Your hand is moist again," Sarah said.

Sarah was still holding his hand. He was getting nervous thinking about how the person who saved Sarah had attacked her the day before. Thinking about what spies who were friends did to each other was causing him to sweat. It was a good thing he hadn't noticed Sarah holding his hand alone in a private room. If he had, he would be sweating so much that it would be like putting her hand in a glass of water.

Sarah made an incorrect assumption. "You're thinking about me fighting Carina while I'm not wearing anything because I was going to take a shower. Aren't you?" He wasn't before, but now he was. Sarah corrected that mental image. "I was still wearing a robe."

That new image wasn't a better way of stopping his hand from sweating. All he could do was retract his hand and focus on the fish. Carina knocked it out of the bowl, but Sarah was still worried, even though she put it back in the water. He told Sarah, "The fins are attached, and I don't know what else to look at. It's been a couple days. If your fish is still eating food, I think it should be fine."

"If you say so. I know this isn't your area of expertise, but you've had a pet. More than one. Mine isn't going to get run over by a car. If there are any problems, I want to fix them now."

"No problems now. Promise me to not flush it."

"His name is Orangie, but I promise."

Sarah had the brightest smile. Chuck knew she and him were "good" again, with his mistakes on the diamond-heist forgotten. He definitely wasn't comfortable around this cover-girlfriend. He was a mess, on the inside. He wanted to be dating her, and they were pretending to be dating, but they weren't really dating. He couldn't keep having these "couple" moments, like holding hands just a couple feet from her bed.

Sarah was right that he needed to get more comfortable with the cover-relationship. Not tonight, though, so he made up a reason to leave about getting up early for work, only to discover it was actually late. When did that happen?

After he said he had to leave, he couldn't swear it, but Sarah looked disappointed. That couldn't be. He really needed to get away from Sarah Lisa—no, to get away from Agent Walker. She was a time vortex that sped up time, and he couldn't think straight around her.

After Chuck left, Sarah fed Orangie and set up to record a video for the day.

Yesterday's log was about the diamond mission. The only thing she had to talk about today was Chuck.

Day 21. Chuck came over to my hotel room today and brought me a pizza. Vegetarian, no olives. I think he's making it his mission to get to know me. It's sweet.

He also learned 'Lisa,', but she wouldn't say on a recording what that made her feel. She also didn't need to say on the video that he helped with her fish. If only he wasn't so skittish. She thought there was something there…something she wasn't supposed to feel or even acknowledge.

Small steps. It was just as well that Chuck was skittish. If he'd made a move, she'd have pulled him to her bed, which was right there, and she'd no longer be able to do her job.

A/N: In season 2, on the back of the Tron poster, Chuck had written "Lisa is her middle name? Or is it?" In season 4, Sarah's prenup had her legal name as "Sarah Lisa Walker."

MyNameIsJeffNImLost AU stories:
- "Chuck vs His Former Handler" (chapter 1, "Balance Point")
- "The Bartowskis vs the Spy World" (chapter 4, "Cherry Bomb")
- "Chuck & Sarah vs Trust" (chapter 4, "The Wrong Spy")
- "Ellie vs the Ninja" (chapter 6, "Ellie vs the DEA Agent")